A 70-year-old woman was nearly killed when a stray bullet fired by a man on a busy Brooklyn street Tuesday afternoon struck her in the cheek as she rode an MTA bus, police officials said.
Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said the unnamed woman was shot just after 2 p.m. in the rear of a B-25 bus traveling westbound along Fulton Street in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
While some passengers dove for cover, the woman was hit. The driver, who’s name was withheld, stopped the bus after he realized there was a commotion at the rear and stopped right on top of the Black Lives Matter mural just off Tompkins Avenue.
The woman was rushed to Kings County Hospital, where Harrison said she was in stable condition.
Harrison said the gunman was wearing a red or orange bubble jacket with grey bottom and blue jeans and sneakers and said, “he was firing several rounds off Tompkins and Fulton Street.” Harrison did not provide further details or who the assailant was shooting at the time of the gunfire.
Police officials said they would soon release surveillance video and photos of the assailant to the public.
The driver was said to have heard the gunfire and realized his passenger had been hit.
MTA officials called the driver, who didn’t want to give his name, as “very brave.”
Anyone with information in regard to this shooting is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit tips online at nypdcrimestoppers.com, or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.
